Isao Tomita, the synthesizer pioneer who composed the score for Tezuka Osamu¡¯s anime ¡°Kimba the White Lion¡± and NHK drama ¡°Hana no Shogai,¡± died of heart failure Thursday at Tokyo Metropolitan Hiroo Hospital. He was 84.

On Sunday, a message on Tomita¡¯s official Facebook page said he was working on a new musical titled ¡°Dr. Coppelius¡± and that he knew he might not see it finished.

¡°My priority right now is staying healthy, but I¡¯d like to finish ¡®Dr. Coppelius¡¯ as much as possible so that, even if something happens to me, others could finish it,¡± Tomita told The Japan Times last December.

A private funeral on Saturday and Sunday was attended by close family members only.

Tomita helped spread electronic music in Japan after importing a Moog III synthesizer in 1971, when the instruments were expensive and rarely used.

He was a noted influence on the nation¡¯s other noted electronic music pioneers, including Ryuichi Sakamoto of the techno-pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra.

The album ¡°Snowflakes are Dancing,¡± which covers the music of French composer Claude Debussy, topped Billboard¡¯s classical music chart in 1974 and was nominated for four Grammy Awards, making him the first Japanese to be nominated.

In 2014, four of its tracks, ¡°Clair de Lune,¡± ¡°Gardens in the Rain,¡± ¡°The Engulfed Cathedral¡± and ¡°Snowflakes are Dancing,¡± were used in the American film ¡°Heaven Knows What.¡±

Tomita had recently been working on projects that experimented with virtual diva Hatsune Miku, a singing computer program produced by Crypton Future Media.

The first such project, ¡°Symphony Ihatov,¡± premiered in 2012 after being inspired by writer Kenji Miyazawa¡¯s novels. It featured Miku singing along with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.

Last year Tomita won the Japan Foundation Award and spoke about ¡°Dr. Coppelius¡± during a related event. The project was dedicated to Tomita¡¯s longtime friend, Hideo Itokawa, the father of Japanese rocketry, who dreamed of creating a hologram in the form of a ballet dancer.

With backup by Crypton Future Media, ¡°Dr. Coppelius¡± was scheduled to be performed in Shibuya¡¯s Bunkamura on Nov. 11 and 12 featuring a 3-D hologram of Hatsune Miku.